3 Simple Analytics Tips To Bullet Proof Your PPC Conversions

We’re always looking for the next tip and trick to push our campaigns to ever greater heights but one area that feels untapped by a lot of PPC marketers is Analytics. We spend so much time digging around our Search Query Reports that we forget the other side of the coin. So, with that in mind, I want to share a few Analytics tricks to help you out!

Matched Search Queries – True Keyword Data In Analytics

The matched search queries report works in the same way as the Search Query report, you see exactly what your visitors typed in however we can now see exactly what those visitors did on the website.

This is a fantastic way to find major wins or failures and gives us some valuable data to play with – you may have a keyword on paper that is working really well but if 60% of users are bouncing away (leaving the page within 10 seconds) then you know you can make improvements; it may be to your ad or changes to the landing page to make the most out of your money.

Because we are viewing the keywords in Analytics rather than the SQR then we can also start pulling in the other valuable bits of data and segment the traffic. Are certain keywords performing better in one city than another? Do certain browsers perform better? How many pages are visitors viewing before completing a goal? All this information can be seen in Analytics.

To view the Matched Search Queries, you simply need to go to Advertising -> AdWords -> Matched Search Queries. Using the Secondary Dimensions button will allow you to start segmenting that traffic for more detailed analysis.

Working Backwards – Use Organic Data To Influence Your Ad Groups

It’s quite often the case that Pay Per Click leads the way for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You can very quickly get valuable keyword and performance data by running a campaign which in turn guides and assists the organic growth of the site. However, this shouldn’t be a one way street; organic traffic can also contribute a lot of valuable data that is there to be capitalised on.

If you navigate to: Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Search -> Organic then you will see the keywords driving organic traffic to the site. If you are running with the correct goals and/or ecommerce tracking set up then you’ll be able to see in a similar way to the Matched Search Queries report above what is working and driving those precious conversions.

Not only will this allow you to find new keywords to target but also may highlight weaknesses in your Adwords campaigns. Using the Ad preview tool, you can literally copy and paste converting organic search phrases to check whether you are covering the terms via PPC. Why do this? Well there are many great reasons:

b) Conversion Security – What happens if you drop 1,2 or 5 places for a converting search term organically? With the string of recent Google updates there is always the chance that organic traffic or rankings can disappear overnight – and that will really hurt conversions.

c) Brand Boost – studies show that appearing in both organic and paid search, can boost the customers perception of your brand, leading to more clicks.

*Not convinced? This study at Performics, showed why this simple strategy can be so effective. In their study, by dominating the market (by aggressively bidding on Adwords whilst also ranking highly organically), they saw huge uplifts in conversions (380%), and when pulling back from PPC (when organic rankings were high), saw a massive drop off (474%) in conversions. Not only this, they found that organic search traffic increased by 241% when dominating via PPC.

Are Your Landing Pages Really Working?

We have touched on in the points above but that’s the great thing about Analytics – it gives us an integrated view of what is happening and we can filter and segment on every screen we look at.

Another new feature to Analytics is the Page Speed tab, which as you might have guessed, lets us see how fast our pages are loading. Speed has become a huge issue in recent years…slow loading pages kill conversions and even if we have the best ads in the world, if the page loads after 10 seconds then we have a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

You can see the loading speed of each page by going to Content -> Site Speed -> Page Timings.

You can view actual landing pages by going to Content -> Site Content -> Landing Pages.

In Conclusion

Analytics is an untapped resource that every marketer should be making the most out of; because the data is completely integrated it makes it immensely powerful. If you’re willing to spend some time digging then you’ll find numerous targets. Don’t just look at your Search Queries Reports!

You can find out a lot more about Analytics in these nifty training videos that Google themselves have provided.

This article was written by Ed Baxter from Ignition Search – A leading internet marketing agency in Sheffield who specialise in PPC management. Visit our website for more information and case studies!

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